Fan x Boy is miserable
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I have Problems with Fan x Boy, the newest comic by Saturday AM CEO Frederick L. Jones, illustrated by Frank Simmon(ds?). The protagonist strutting around in a piss-soaked cum jacket, somehow, does not breach the top 6 things that suck. Weâre also not going to give too much thought about how it, somehow, misspelled the artistâs name.
Chapter 1 is not a satisfying entry point to a new series. Things just kinda happen and then it ends and everything hazily drifts into the next chapter. This wishy-washy meandering is acceptable for a comedy/SoL. But for a superhero action series featuring a hostage negotiation, this is nauseatingly unfocused. Youâd think with Saturday AM being in business since 2013, theyâd know how to deliver a solid opener.
I suspect Jones spent the last 13 years learning how to bloviate instead of learning how to how to pace a story. Or they butchered an otherwise meaty 40-page chapter 1 into increasingly smaller chapters.
Since I am full of so much goddamn benevolence, I gave this series time. And some more time. And even more.
See, Fan x Boy debuted in the New! Saturday PM. This promised to be the monthly reboot of their Saturday PM magazine⌠which immediately fumbles on that premise since the damn magazine opens with Chapter 7 of their 2015 manga Underground. Because diving in at chapter 7 for a decade-old series is how you want to start off your New Issue 1. Sure. I guess. Alright.
Either way, the big selling point of this magazineâs reboot was it was promised to be monthly⌠until it wasnât. We see the apology tour in full force by issue 3: their Letter from the Editor makes an unnecessarily big whoop over something that I am certain only a dozen people noticed.
Anyway, about Fan x Boy.
Chapter 1 feels more like âscene 1â â but since this is more of a comic than a manga, lets let the three-act-structure speak for itself. Weâre now 3 chapters deep and wow! It still! Sucks! It still monumentally fucking sucks!
Suck 1: Jones is greenlighting another series for himself
Alright, this is a meta problem, but hear me out.
What kinda checks and balances are in place at Saturday AM if Jones can have 4 series running simultaneously? (World of Ghosts, Clock Striker, Yellow Stringer, and now Fan x Boy).
I get itâ every OEL manga publishing company starts because a guy wanted to make his manga, he gets a group of friends together, things snowball from there (for this broad and sweeping statement to work, weâre ignoring the likes of Viz Originalsâ companies who were already robust publishers and felt charitable enough to open an OEL branch).
But câmon. Four? Having that many plates spinning canât be good. Either his input on those other 3 amounts to âpushy editor with a big enough ego he granted himself second billing, because honestly, whoâs gonna say no to the bossâ or âorâ the entire operation is burning in the background as he juggles four series at once. Again. Four.
Suck 2: Whatâs with the title.
I heard Jones on video exclusively pronounce this series title as âFan Ex Boy.â Since itâs his damn thing, however he pronounces it is probably right. Probably. But hearing âfan ex boyâ for a series thatâs spelled as âFan x Boyâ gives me that call-and-response itch to adjust my pocket protector and dweeb-glasses while I nasally blurt out âthe x is silent.â
Hunter x Hunter. xxxHolic. Marriage x Toxin.
All of these manga series have silent Xâs since the X is supposed to be, like, a variable. Ugh. I dunno man. This is dork culture 101. I feel like an asshole for even saying it. Am I being baited? Does Fred want me to make this correction, just so he can spin around and say that the X isnât silent for this one very special occasion? This is either 4d linguistic chess or heâs such a turbonormie he legitimately and honestly and truthfully and sincerely believes in his heart that you say the X in Hunter x Hunter.
My personal head canon is the variable in Fan x Boy is a plus (fan+boy) and itâs a way to discretely ship the protagonist with his best friend. Kiiiiiinda gay!!!
Suck 3: Homophobia.
I wanna break down the opening scene of Fan x Boy because it appropriates on my culture: Homophobia. Because when it comes to homophobia, itâs something I love giving and receiving in the sloppiest way possible.
The comic opens with a Bostonian coded child clarifying that when he calls our dweebish, comic book reading protagonist âqueer,â he doesnât mean gay! How very progressive and woke of you, Bostonian Child, to share the intricacies of the word âqueerâ as a pejorative.
The more realistic move would be to have this little prick scream the F slur as he cruises by on his tricycle. No explanation needed.
Guys who casually dish out homophobia only learn this distinction when they take Sociology 101, because that felt less gay than taking Feminism 101 for picking up chicks. At this developmental stage youâre using brute force to establish the hierarchy and pick on someone weaker. Which was the point of the scene. So why do we need it explained that queer =/= gay when weâre demonstrating how protag-kun is such an outsider. God, shut the fuck up. Even Fredâs imaginary schoolyard bullying includes a Teachable Moment.
And just in case you wanted your homophobia to hit a lil harder, we do get An F on page 2.
So letâs summarize it:
Weâre opening with unnecessary homophobia
The homophobia gets an explanation from the bully
Only to turn around and go harder with the homophobia
If youâre going to give the audience the psychic damage of homophobiaâ I want you to do your research. I donât want to be the one feeling lectured. Which is why Iâm saying, dude, just do the Drive By Slur. Its a form of harassment so ubiquitous itâll be nationally added to drivers ed curriculum by Trumpâs third term.
There was a chance to show uniquely homophobic bullying, and ya blew it.
Suck 4: Sexism
This oneâs not as bad but I still wanted to point it out.
Sexism (and other forms of discrimination) manifest in Jonesâ work through a big hulking dummy punching down at the little guy. We see this most frequently in Jonesâ series Clock Striker, which, if renamed with light novel naming conventions, would be This Parade of Men canât Possibly Believe an Otome Heroine can be an Engineer?!
Itâs not impossible that some asshole who looks like George Liquor American would verbally berate the workplaceâs lone chick. But itâs a flat, Disney channel binary execution and understanding of discrimination. And it keeps happening in Jonesâ series. Only bad men are sexist. Only the bully is homophobic. And to delegate acts of discrimination to flat, one-dimensional Bad Guys fundamentally misunderstands why these attitudes exist and permeate. The otherwise polite man who thinks nothing of his casual sexist comment is far more interestingâ and pervasiveâ than this meathead jamming a finger in a womanâs face.
Iâm not asking for much, okay. This is basic character nuance. And if a series is going to make the conscious decision to include these real-world issues, you need to offer your audience a little more depth. Otherwise youâre just setting the stage for low-level misery porn. And Clock Striker is like, 12. Gross.
Suck 5: They Really Care About Comics
Fan Ex Boy protagonist, Max, gets his powers by reading comic books. Basically he can absorb what he read like a Ditto and temporarily borrow the powers. I think. Maybe. By the fourth namedrop Iâm suspecting that his real superpower is slobbering the Marvel/DC knob. Because jesus christ this series loves flexing what a tee-hee dork they are because they know Frank Miller.
Thereâs a lot of debate over what counts as âmangaââ but its more from the angle of who can make manga, do you need to be Japanese, does it need to release in Japan. I humbly believe you donât have to be Japanese to make manga, you just have to feel like youâre not trying hard enough.
Stylistically, manga can look like anything. Storytelling diversity is equally rich. So why does reading Urusei Yatsura feel so monumentally different from reading an Archie comic? Why is My Hero Academia the definitive shonen manga of the 2010âs, despite wearing its Marvel/DC influences proudly on its sleeve?
I canât give you a clear answer, and neither can anyone else, which is why this debate of âwhatâs mangaâ has continued for so long. And I can say that Fan x Boy does not feel like a manga. Art style, tone, paneling, story, all of it gets a 0/10 on the âmangaâ scale for me. Feel free to debate me on my scoring, because I know I will win.
So to really rub it in that theyâre drifting away from the conventions of manga, Fan x Boy is going to constantly shout out American comics. And like, sure, fine. Make your capeshit. But you canât cry too hard when someone gives a stink eye and questions if this counts as a âmangaâ.
Suck 6: Two cops
The kĹban two-cop trope is more entry-level than the phonology of Hunter x Hunter, so Iâll spare you the explanation. Which is why I felt such a⌠sadness seeing two very opposite cops in Fan x Boy and knowing there was zero chance theyâd be shipped (theyâre father/son, and I know Saturday AM isnât that freaky).
This is such a no-brainer bit of fujoshi fanservice to organically work into your tough-guy cop story. And you monumentally fumbled it.
Iâm also not sure whatâs going on with the second panel. Whyâs the son suddenly looking so dejected? What in the text wall made him react like this? The speech bubble is a runoff continuation from the first panel, but in the second panel weâre seeing Big Cop with a huge grin. So, uh, what did he say to change his mood? And juniorâs? How in the fuck do you put something so incomprehensible on a page and send it to print?
Suck 7: Piss Soaked Cum Jacket.
Look. Iâm not trying to be mean. Really. But that jacket is a problem. So lets get our chuckles outta the way because yellow = pee and the rain droplets on the Fanxboy color art is rendered like a heavy splooge. Because thereâs a way bigger problem with Maxâs jacket.
In chapter 1, Maxâs Cop Friend has the realization that maybe Max is involved with a hostage situation. Okay.
But then in chapter 2, we also get this scene:
Câmon man. Can you at least pretend to pay attention to your own comic? This sucks.














you know of all the things I'd of thought a comic called fan x boy to be about superheroes wasn't one of them but hey, maybe that says more about me than anything else... đł
so he's such a big fan that it fuels his powers? autism? hrmmm??? makes ya think..